How long does a gas cylinder last: calculation of gas consumption for typical gas cylinders
If you often have to deal with gas appliances, then you have probably thought more than once about how long a regular cylinder lasts in different situations. Agree, it is important to be able to calculate the amount of gas consumed so as not to get into an extremely awkward situation when blue fuel may run out at the most inopportune moment.
We are talking not only about extreme situations, when the question of the presence of a flame source becomes especially acute, but also about the most common use of a gas cylinder in domestic conditions. To avoid such a problem, you will need to independently calculate how long a gas cylinder lasts in a particular situation.
Small tourist receivers that are convenient to take with you on a hike have become especially popular today. If at home the lack of gas will bring only minor inconvenience, then during an “outing” the situation can turn into a real disaster. From this article you will learn at what speed gas is consumed in cylinders of different volumes, and how long 220 g, 5 and 50 liters of gas receivers last.
The content of the article:
Gas consumption from a 50 liter cylinder
Traditionally 50 l gas cylinders used in everyday life and act as the main source of fuel for appliances such as a gas stove, water heater or heating boiler.
When purchasing a household propane tank, every buyer thinks about how long the propane will last and how often it will need to be refilled.In this case, everything depends only on the number of gas appliances that will be “powered” by a 50 liter gas cylinder.
In order to find out the maximum consumption of a particular gas appliance, you will need to look at its technical document. For example, a gas stove “Hephaestus” PG 900 with 4 burners consumes 486 g/h (0.486 kg/h), and propane will have to be calculated in grams. It is worth noting that at the specified gas flow rate, the stove must operate “at full capacity”, that is, all 4 burners must be used.
Therefore, if a 50 liter cylinder contains 21.5 kg of propane, then this amount of fuel will last the consumer approximately 44 hours. In this case, we divide the amount of gas in the cylinder by the consumption of the gas stove - 0.486 kg/h, and get the time of use of blue fuel. If you use only 2 burners, the gas consumption will be half as much.
The same formula is also used when calculating the propane consumed by other gas appliances, such as a gas water heater or a heating boiler. In the case of a boiler, the level of gas consumption will directly depend on the degree of insulation of the house and the street temperature, so the calculation may be inaccurate.
Choosing a camping gas cylinder
Today, many manufacturers offer special camping gas cylinders that allow not only cooking, but also heating a tent when a person is outdoors. On the Internet you can find both small 220 g propane containers and 5 liter cylinders with a built-in burner.
Despite the convenience of a camping gas stove, small cylinders with a burner are most suitable for mountain trips, since it would be somewhat impractical to take a mini-stove with you. The volume of gas consumed is calculated depending on the duration of the trip, the purpose of using gas, and the number of gas consumers, depending on which the volume of the vessel will change.
If you don’t know how many days a 220 gram gas cylinder lasts, then for three days of fishing such a small cylinder will be quite enough, but it is only suitable for cooking. However, in this case, you should go fishing by car so that you can spend the night in the cabin, and thereby save on gas.
The required volume of the cylinder will be calculated depending on the rate of gas consumption per day by one person. If you choose camping gas burners, you should understand that they are often used to boil small volumes of water, so when traveling with a group, it is better to give preference to a 5 liter cylinder, to which you can connect a gas stove with one burner.
Formula for calculating gas consumption
At the time of buying gas burner for hiking, the manufacturer indicates how many grams per hour this burner consumes. Therefore, if you want to clearly calculate how much gas you will need while traveling, it is better to purchase just such a gas cylinder with a burner.
You can study information regarding the performance of the burner in the product description on the page of any online store.
To calculate the volume of gas consumed, you will need to know only two parameters: fuel consumption (grams per hour) and the boiling time of 1 liter of water (in minutes). Based on this knowledge, you can roughly calculate how long a 5-liter propane gas cylinder lasts when going camping or fishing.
According to information from the product description, the average burner consumes 110 g/h, while 1 liter of water boils in 4.5 minutes. In this case, we will rely solely on time, since the amount of propane consumed depends on it. Let's say there is a need to cook porridge and boil water twice for tea for a group of 10 people.
To prepare porridge, you must first boil 3.5 liters of water, which will need to be multiplied by 4.5 (boiling time for 1 liter of water), which equates to 15 minutes. Another 15 minutes are allotted for cooking the porridge, while for tea the water should only come to a boil.
It will take 30 minutes to prepare one meal, and the same time will be required to prepare two pots of tea. In total, the total time to prepare a full meal for 10 people is 1 hour, so we consume 110 g of propane.
According to data taken from the stamp on a regular 5 liter cylinder, there is 2.3 kg of pure propane inside the container. To calculate the exact weight of propane, you need to weigh the empty cylinder, then subtract the resulting number from the total weight of the cylinder with the burner.
With two meals a day, you will need to use 220 g, which means that for a two-day hike, a 450 gram bottle will be enough. There may be errors in the manufacture of such camping cylinders, so it is better to choose a cylinder with a large volume, in case of unforeseen circumstances.
Therefore, if a 5 liter cylinder holds 2.3 kg of gas, then this volume of gas will be enough for about 10 days to cook food for 10 people. In this case, gas consumption is used only for cooking, without the need to heat the tent or cabin.
The main factor in calculating the gas used
If, for example, a camping gas cylinder is equipped with a built-in burner, which has a set amount of gas consumed per hour, then when using a regular cylinder, a regular gas mini-stove with one burner will be used.
The gas consumption of such a device can vary from 130 to 150 g/h, while the boiling time for 1 liter of water will be less than 4.5 minutes.
Many travelers often take with them on a hike the popular model of the “Tourist” mini-stove, which is equipped with only one burner for cooking food in a container of any size. Camping gas burners are designed only for the capacity of a certain displacement, so in this case a mini-stove will be much more practical.
The gas consumption of such a tile is 150 g/h, which means that when connected to a 5 liter cylinder, 2.3 kg of propane will be enough for 15 hours of continuous use.
We also recommend reading our other article, where we described in detail how gas cartridges for burners are refilled.Read more - read Further.
Gas cylinder consumption in the mountains
A regular propane cylinder with a burner will take twice as long to heat the water in strong winds, so cylinders with a mixture of several types of gas are sold for traveling in particularly difficult conditions. Thus, using gas at an altitude of up to 3,500 meters above the ground means purchasing a gas cylinder with a mixture of butane and propane.
If you climb even higher, the gas will simply freeze, causing its efficiency to significantly decrease. In this case, you will need to purchase a cylinder with a mixture of propane, butane and isobutane.
That is, at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, it is worth setting an error factor of 50% in the calculations, even if the information on the cylinder itself does not say anything about this.
If 450 g of ordinary propane is enough for exactly 2 days, then the cylinder with butane and isobutane impurities will run out after the second cooking for the whole company is completed.
Conclusions and useful video on the topic
From this video you can find out how long it takes for water to boil, and, therefore, how long a propane tank with a burner will last:
Before calculating the time for which a propane cylinder of a certain volume will last, you need to find out the maximum consumption of the gas equipment used. Often this information is indicated in the technical documentation of the device, be it a gas stove or a heating boiler.
According to the formula, to calculate the time of use of a gas cylinder, it is necessary to divide the amount of propane inside the cylinder by the fuel consumption of a specific gas appliance.Based on this, you can calculate how long both a camp cylinder for a gas burner and a household 50 liter cylinder for using gas appliances will last.
If you have had to calculate the required volume of gas more than once, please share your experience with our readers and tell us how accurate the calculations turned out to be. You can leave a comment or ask our experts a question in the appropriate field after the article.
I want to install a gas burner with a small 50 liter cylinder in my dacha. Based on your calculations, that's about 88 hours of work, right? I think the season will last.
I checked the “Tourist” stove from a full 5l. cylinder: indeed, continuous burning for 15 hours 12 minutes.